Please note that each user review reflects the opinion of its respectful author and not of Phone Arena.

Rich O'Loughlinposted on16 Dec 2009, 20:29

4.3

Cool phone with one unforgivable issue

Bought this phone after having an LG 8300 (best phone on earth) for over 3 years and 2000 hrs of talk time. Thought I would finally upgrade and treat myself to an early Christmas gift. Loved the Gzgear features in the store, seemed perfect being a surfer and hiker. Seemed like a beast and king of all flips, so I made the move. I was so psyched when I got it and couldn't wait to show it off. HOWEVER, THEN I MADE MY FIRST PHONE CALL! I was immediately told by the person I called that my voice sounded funny, almost "tinny". SO, i wanted to believe this was a one time problem, so I called 5 more people to ask how I sounded, and they all said the same thing. I was asked "are you on a headset or speaker, are you in a cave, are you in a can, I hear an echo, you need to repeat what you just said cuz I can't understand your voice, it's muffled" and on and on and on. I was heart broken. Sooo, i took it back to the VW store, and they replaced it with another one. SAME PROBLEM. In the middle on a coversation, people would say they couldn't understand what I was saying! After 6 days, I couldn't take it anymore. I returned the phone, and reactivated my old 8300 again, and now everyone can hear me clear as day. This phone has some type of noise cancelling mic that is touted as a feature, not sure if that's causing the problem, but this needs to be fixed. I liked everything else so much, if VW would do something to fix this major flaw and upgrade the software or mic or something,...

Bought this phone after having an LG 8300 (best phone on earth) for over 3 years and 2000 hrs of talk time. Thought I would finally upgrade and treat myself to an early Christmas gift. Loved the Gzgear features in the store, seemed perfect being a surfer and hiker. Seemed like a beast and king of all flips, so I made the move. I was so psyched when I got it and couldn't wait to show it off. HOWEVER, THEN I MADE MY FIRST PHONE CALL! I was immediately told by the person I called that my voice sounded funny, almost "tinny". SO, i wanted to believe this was a one time problem, so I called 5 more people to ask how I sounded, and they all said the same thing. I was asked "are you on a headset or speaker, are you in a cave, are you in a can, I hear an echo, you need to repeat what you just said cuz I can't understand your voice, it's muffled" and on and on and on. I was heart broken. Sooo, i took it back to the VW store, and they replaced it with another one. SAME PROBLEM. In the middle on a coversation, people would say they couldn't understand what I was saying! After 6 days, I couldn't take it anymore. I returned the phone, and reactivated my old 8300 again, and now everyone can hear me clear as day. This phone has some type of noise cancelling mic that is touted as a feature, not sure if that's causing the problem, but this needs to be fixed. I liked everything else so much, if VW would do something to fix this major flaw and upgrade the software or mic or something, I would actually try this phone again. For now, I gonnal wait for LG to come out with a rugged flip (dreaming) cuz the LG 8350 or 8360 are a joke compared to the 8300. So, if you want a phone to tell you the temperature of the great barrier reef, of find out the tide for the next 5 years, this may be for you. If you actually use this PHONE for PHONE calls, avoid it. Your contacts will thank you.

Design7/10

Features5/10

Performance1/10

Pros

Cool outdoor functions

Battery life

Looks

durability

Cons

Scott Bennettposted on10 Dec 2009, 18:18

5.7

My opinion of the G'Zone Rock

I work on the Cape Fear river in North Carolina and the features and durability of this phone were appealing to me. I really like how the lower part of each number key is slightly raised.This makes dialing or texting much easier with my fat fingers.I like the way this phone looks and so far ,so good! HOWEVER, after talking to the Verizon technical support and finding out that this phone does not have the software to carry ESPN MVP , I may have to go with another phone. I did find out that every Casio phone before the ROCK was capable of carrying ESPN MVP.WHY CANT THE SOFTWARE BE PUT ONTO THE ROCK??????????? It seems to me since every other phone had it on ,couldn't it be easily programmed into the ROCK????????? I would love to hear some feedback on this issue. I am a true sports nut(in case you can't tell) Thanks for letting me vent.

I work on the Cape Fear river in North Carolina and the features and durability of this phone were appealing to me. I really like how the lower part of each number key is slightly raised.This makes dialing or texting much easier with my fat fingers.I like the way this phone looks and so far ,so good! HOWEVER, after talking to the Verizon technical support and finding out that this phone does not have the software to carry ESPN MVP , I may have to go with another phone. I did find out that every Casio phone before the ROCK was capable of carrying ESPN MVP.WHY CANT THE SOFTWARE BE PUT ONTO THE ROCK??????????? It seems to me since every other phone had it on ,couldn't it be easily programmed into the ROCK????????? I would love to hear some feedback on this issue. I am a true sports nut(in case you can't tell) Thanks for letting me vent.

Pros

Cons

JohnWGposted on09 Dec 2009, 21:00

3.3

G'zOne Rock, not as durable as predicessor

I've own the G'zOne Type S for a little over a year, and it's a pretty rugged phone.
The only problem I had with it was the software started messing up, or someone in the CIA was tapping my phone. Calls kept getting dropped, it would pick up other people's cell phone conversations, and would no longer text. Verizon said they couldn't fix it and I could pay them for a new one. So I figured I might as well upgrade.

First impressions, pretty nice phone, has a micro SD card slot, better quality camera, and looks like it comes from the 21st century. The G'gear is a nice little gadget I doubt I will ever really use. Has thermometer, thing to show you the tides, sunset/sunrise calendar, and a couple of other things I'll never use.

So after I've been using it for a few days, I notice the biggest problem I seem to have with this phone is the buttons on the side are way too sensitive. When I'm holding the phone to talk on it, like any other cell phone I've used, the volume buttons keep getting hit ever so slightly, and I keep hearing the beeping of that while talking on the phone. When I open the phone to make a call, same problem with the side buttons, G'Gearz applications want to start running.
Another problem, the buttons on the number key pad seem to be more sensitive and closer together. I'm pretty much all thumbs when it comes to small pieces of technology. So when I'm trying to dial a number in or send a text message, it seems my thumb is hitting three buttons at the same time....

I've own the G'zOne Type S for a little over a year, and it's a pretty rugged phone.
The only problem I had with it was the software started messing up, or someone in the CIA was tapping my phone. Calls kept getting dropped, it would pick up other people's cell phone conversations, and would no longer text. Verizon said they couldn't fix it and I could pay them for a new one. So I figured I might as well upgrade.

First impressions, pretty nice phone, has a micro SD card slot, better quality camera, and looks like it comes from the 21st century. The G'gear is a nice little gadget I doubt I will ever really use. Has thermometer, thing to show you the tides, sunset/sunrise calendar, and a couple of other things I'll never use.

So after I've been using it for a few days, I notice the biggest problem I seem to have with this phone is the buttons on the side are way too sensitive. When I'm holding the phone to talk on it, like any other cell phone I've used, the volume buttons keep getting hit ever so slightly, and I keep hearing the beeping of that while talking on the phone. When I open the phone to make a call, same problem with the side buttons, G'Gearz applications want to start running.
Another problem, the buttons on the number key pad seem to be more sensitive and closer together. I'm pretty much all thumbs when it comes to small pieces of technology. So when I'm trying to dial a number in or send a text message, it seems my thumb is hitting three buttons at the same time.
The clock on the face doesn't come on unless you hit a button. The earlier versions of the G'zOne had an old LCD display that didn't need to light up for you to check the time.

And for my final problem with the phone, the main LCD screen has broken and I've only had the phone for a week. The Type-S phone, I dropped everywhere. Toilet, roof, road, getting out of car, hot-tub, rail road tracks, kitchen, mud, and everywhere else you can think of. I've thrown my Type-S in the air above 30 ft to test the claim that it could survive a 30 ft drop. It still worked for a year until the software problems came about. My G'zOne Rock gets dropped about 5 feet, and now the main LCD screen looks like someone went at it with a hammer. The phone still works, just hard to read anything off of it now.

Type-S was a way more rugged phone. Looks a little out dated, but if the software wasn't malfunctioning, I'd still be using it right now. I think with the Rock they must've been trying to go with a phone that looked better, but paid less attention to durability and actual functionality. The men who buy a rugged phone aren't using it to update their twitter accounts and check their stock quotes. If someone's buying a rugged phone, they're probably taking it out to the job site and they're probably going to be working with heavy equipment, and their phone is going to take just as rough of a beating as themselves.

If you work in a carpeted office, and the chances of your phone hitting the concrete aren't that good, this phone would be perfect for you.

Cons

boilerup2345435posted on04 Dec 2009, 14:48

5.3

Critical Flaw Makes Phone Less that Desirable

I got this phone about 4 days ago, and I initially really liked it. Some people say it is a beast and unsightly, but I personally think it looks fine. It has a nice LCD and is very functional. The G'Z gear is also a cool feature not found on any other phones. I picked this phone because I don't like many of the text messaging machines that are out there nowdays, and I prefer the traditional clam shell type of phone. It is a tough and durable phone, and has a loud speaker which is great on construction sites. However, the two biggest flaws I have found with this phone are the placement of the antenna and the speed of it. I had people constantly tell me that they couldn't hear me at random points in a conversation. However, I realized that it was occurring when I would hold the phone between my face and shoulder. This position prevents the phone from sending out a signal I guess, and absolutely destroys your voice quality. However, I can easily hear people when in this position. The other major downside is that although the phone seems to be fast sometimes, it can also really bog down at times as well, such as trying to read text and emails, or flipping through the menus. These two things may not be a large deal to some people, but unfortunatly for me they are deal breakers and I will have to return the phone and look at some other options. I strongly suggest you try the phone out in the store and place a few test calls and see if you can replicate the problems I described...

I got this phone about 4 days ago, and I initially really liked it. Some people say it is a beast and unsightly, but I personally think it looks fine. It has a nice LCD and is very functional. The G'Z gear is also a cool feature not found on any other phones. I picked this phone because I don't like many of the text messaging machines that are out there nowdays, and I prefer the traditional clam shell type of phone. It is a tough and durable phone, and has a loud speaker which is great on construction sites. However, the two biggest flaws I have found with this phone are the placement of the antenna and the speed of it. I had people constantly tell me that they couldn't hear me at random points in a conversation. However, I realized that it was occurring when I would hold the phone between my face and shoulder. This position prevents the phone from sending out a signal I guess, and absolutely destroys your voice quality. However, I can easily hear people when in this position. The other major downside is that although the phone seems to be fast sometimes, it can also really bog down at times as well, such as trying to read text and emails, or flipping through the menus. These two things may not be a large deal to some people, but unfortunatly for me they are deal breakers and I will have to return the phone and look at some other options. I strongly suggest you try the phone out in the store and place a few test calls and see if you can replicate the problems I described before buying. However, if you can live with those two flaws I would say give this phone a shot because it is pretty cool, but be aware of those two points.

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